Fox News Trying to Keep Tucker Carlson Off the Air Through 2024 Election Despite Shock Firing: Report
Fox News is reportedly looking to keep Tucker Carlson’s contract with the network ongoing despite his sudden firing earlier this week, RadarOnline.com has learned.
In a surprising development to come just days after Carlson was fired from Fox News on Monday morning, network insiders revealed Fox is plotting to prohibit the 53-year-old host from taking a job at another network until his contract officially expires in late 2024.
By doing this, Fox News would essentially “sideline” Carlson from reporting on the 2024 presidential election while simultaneously preventing Carlson from creating additional competition for the already embattled Rupert Murdoch-owned conservative news network.
“As of right now, the plan remains the same: pay out Carlson’s contract and keep him on the sidelines through the 2024 elections,” one Fox News insider told Breitbart News on Thursday.
“They knew they would take a beating for this, but everyone — and I mean everyone — is pretty rattled,” the source continued. “They weren’t expecting the blowback to be this bad. Hate to say it, but it’s clear that Rupert has lost a step or two.”
“He’s still not fired, you know that right?” another Fox News insider told the outlet this week. “His contract is still ongoing.”
Meanwhile, a third network insider told Breitbart News that Fox essentially fired Carlson – as well as weekend host Dan Bongino – to “send a message” and “reestablish control” over Murdoch’s media empire.
“It’s like when in your first day in prison you find the biggest, baddest, meanest dude in the yard and beat the living s--t out of him,” the source said. “From that day forward, everyone knows not to f--k with you.”
“That’s what the Murdochs just did by getting rid of Tucker and Dan—anyone who would have challenged their vision for the direction of this company has learned that if you f--k around you will find out something not so good for yourself.”
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Fox News announced Carlson was out at the popular conservative news network in a statement released on Monday morning.
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“FOX News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways,” their statement read. “We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor.”
Fox News insiders quickly clarified that Carlson was definitively fired from the network.
But the “blowback” in firing Carlson was immediate because the network’s new primetime program at 8 PM – Fox News Tonight – lost nearly 50% of its viewers and plummeted in the ratings when compared to its network rivals like MSNBC, CNN, and even Newsmax.
“After the Dominion settlement, there was clearly a meeting at the network—I don’t know if it was a board meeting or just the Murdochs, but someone made a decision—and said these two are the biggest threats to the network and they don’t listen to anyone,” yet another Fox insider told Breitbart News regarding Carlson and Bongino’s oustings.
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“Neither one of them were controllable, and they were just doing their own thing,” the source added. “They were developing such a profile that it became problems for them. They just decided on Wednesday to cut bait.”
Although Carlson has yet to announce his future plans now that he is no longer beholden to Fox News five nights a week, the 53-year-old newly unemployed host released a video on Wednesday night trashing the “people in charge” of today’s “American media.”